cman:These credit card companies are attempting to back away from possible federal legal proceedings. I dont really think that many of the workers up in Visa would like to be indicted on federal drug charges.

No, what's asinine is that the federal government is taking something that's in the free market, and slowly forcing it back into the black market. Forcing people to use untraceable transactions will only lead to less reported revenue, and therefore less tax revenue for the government.

His Sonshine:Good for the banks. If the proper authority refuses to enforce marijuana laws, then I guess the banks are doing us a favor.

/I was in Denver last month visiting family and there was a girl in a bikini holding a marijuana sign pointing to a business that sells marijuana. We saw these stores all over. No cops around or anything.

I got bad news for ya, buddy. Colorado is never turning back. It will always be legal in Colorado. Nobody cares, including most Republicans I know here.

You know the ATMs these places would have would be the gas-station ripoff kind that only allows you to withdraw $100 at a time with a $5 charge. Better off for the customer telling them to walk down the street, whatever, to the bank.

I saw the Oaksterdam shop raid pictures in the paper. There was a branch of Community Bank of the Bay outside their back door, with an ATM.

AeAe:ha-ha-guy: You should be paying cash for the medical marijuana anyway. Given the Feds still raid the places, why the hell would you want a money trail leading back from there?

Let's go with this. What would the Feds do? Arrest someone for buying a couple of grams of weed? How many people in California buy weed? 10's of thousands? 100's?

The Feds are going to go after potentially 100's of thousands of people who bought weed. Really?

Because perhaps with cash the medical marijuana place could launder their money over into some other aspect of their business. For example there may be a local guy around here whose medical marijuana dispensary is not very profitable. However his general store a couple doors down is really, really farking profitable. He pays his local taxes and all is well. His thinking is he shows no profit off an activity the federal considers illegal, thus reducing his odds of having trouble.

Here's to anyone opposign medical MJ getting ass cancer and dying a prolonged and agonizing death with nothing to help with the pain. Not one thing.assholes.Fark cancer, and fark anyone who isn't helping.

Ow! That was my feelings!:bsharitt: All the Republicans who cry out for "states' rights" on issues like health care and gay marriage support the feds backing down over medical marijuana and allowing states to control it themselves, right?

Actually, in Colorado anyway, some Repubs are pro-herb legalization. Not the evangelicals(no surprise) or tea partiers(kinda surprising, hypocritical).

We run a bit more on the libertarian side out here. Had some DEA guy show up at our town council meeting and give us a lecture about all the trouble we could get into with the federal government if the town granted a permit to a medical marijuana dispensary. The local cops told him point blank if the DEA planned on raiding it, bring a tank, because the SWAT team would be called in to deal with the abuse of federal government powers.

All the Republicans who cry out for "states' rights" on issues like health care and gay marriage support the feds backing down over medical marijuana and allowing states to control it themselves, right?

I don't smoke up, but I don't care if you do. It really should be legal and taxed. But dudes like the guy in the photo are part of the reason that the government can cry "filthy hippies want their pot" and get away with it.

I wonder if this isn't also tied to the amount of chargebacks that must come about with medical marijuana. Go charge $300 worth of bud. Go home. Call your credit card company and claim that you never made the charge. Now it's up to the merchant to prove they made a sale that's illegal by federal standards?

cman:Although I am pro-legalization, calling this asinine is a stretch.

These credit card companies are attempting to back away from possible federal legal proceedings. I dont really think that many of the workers up in Visa would like to be indicted on federal drug charges.

Yeah, credit cards refuse to work with any company where:

A) the chance of the money being seized is too highB) the chance of fraud is too high (as defined by people insisting on returns)

There's plenty of gambling venues both online and in the real world that credit processing agencies found too risky, as well.

cman:Although I am pro-legalization, calling this asinine is a stretch.

These credit card companies are attempting to back away from possible federal legal proceedings. I dont really think that many of the workers up in Visa would like to be indicted on federal drug charges.

Yeah that's how I read the article too. Not that credit card companies aren't scumbags, they just have a good reason to not want to get involved in the sale of medical marijuana. And it's not like having to pay cash is the most terrible thing anyways (that's how I buy my weed, though a doctor is nowhere to be seen when I do it)

These credit card companies are attempting to back away from possible federal legal proceedings. I dont really think that many of the workers up in Visa would like to be indicted on federal drug charges.